Cicero job talk disclosed

Dominick mulled hiring ex-cop official

March 17, 2006|By Brett McNeil, Tribune staff reporter

Cicero Town President Larry Dominick discussed rehiring a former police official who had been suing the town for back pay and is now at the center of a police-hiring scandal, according to a court deposition Dominick offered last year.

A portion of that sealed deposition was read in court Thursday morning as lawyers for Clarence Gross, a one-time chairman of Cicero's Police and Fire Commission, sought to have Dominick subpoenaed to testify at the first day of a bench trial before U.S. District Judge John Darrah.

Gross is on trial to determine whether he owes the town damages for appointing unqualified police officers.

Dana Kurtz, an attorney for Gross, told the court she wanted Dominick to testify about allegedly offering Gross two jobs within his administration--deputy liquor commissioner and chairman of the Police and Fire Board--shortly after Dominick won office in February 2005.

Darrah ruled against the subpoena--meaning Dominick will not have to testify at the trial--but not before Kurtz introduced a portion of Dominick's deposition.

In the deposition, Dominick acknowledges discussing with Gross a job as deputy liquor commissioner. But when asked whether he expressly offered Gross a job, Dominick said, "I never got that far."

Dominick offered a similar answer when he was asked in the deposition whether he ever offered Gross a job as chairman of the Police and Fire Board. "I don't think we got that far," he said.

Gross, who headed the town's Police and Fire Board from 1998 to 2001, is now the target in a hiring scandal that emerged from a lawsuit he filed against the town two years ago for back pay. That suit was pending at the time of the discussions between Gross and Dominick.

Gross has conceded that he appointed unqualified police officers, and the town is now seeking to recover up to $1 million in damages from him.

Cicero spokesman Dan Proft on Thursday said it's possible that Dominick and Gross talked about jobs, but Proft denied that Dominick ever offered a job to Gross.

"When our attorneys started looking into the suit, it became pretty clear that Clarence wasn't the man for any job in Town Hall," Proft said.

Dominick and Gross know one another as longtime town residents and employees, Proft said, adding that Dominick was not familiar with the details of Gross' lawsuit before he took office in May.

In a written order earlier this year, Darrah indicated that 33 cops were hired improperly during Gross' tenure on the commission, which ended in 2001.

The questionable police recruits lied on pre-employment polygraph tests, posted below-average scores on psychological evaluations and, in some cases, admitted to crimes including drug abuse, theft and using excessive force on earlier police jobs, according to police and court papers.

Cicero now must retest and re-evaluate the 33 officers, Darrah wrote. Some could be discharged.

In court Thursday, Terry Ekl, a Clarendon Hills-based attorney for Cicero, identified four questionable police hires, including former Cicero Police Officer Lorne Stenson. The town is seeking to recoup more than $800,000 in costs related to an out-of-court settlement prompted by a wrongful driving-under-the-influence arrest that Stenson made in 2000.

Ekl also has indicated that the town will seek to have Gross pay for an ongoing investigation into Police Department hiring practices during his tenure on the Police and Fire Board.

A 30-year Cicero police official, Gross retired as acting chief in 1997 amid unproven allegations that he beat a mentally disabled man in the town jail. Gross was never charged with wrongdoing in that case. A year later, Betty Loren-Maltese, who was town president at the time, made him chairman of the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.

Gross testified he hired unqualified recruits at the direction of local powerbrokers, including Loren-Maltese, who since has been imprisoned for a mob-linked insurance scheme that looted town coffers of $10.6 million.

Gross generally was subdued throughout an hourslong stint on the witness stand. But he became emotional at one point and insisted that he never knowingly hired a police officer who might be a risk to Cicero residents.

"I would never bring about the employment of anybody who would be a risk to that community," Gross said.